I found this product to be extremely useful in my effort to make my world maps. Fractal Mapper provides me with an infinite number of land ideas, worlds, dungeons and story ideas whenever I use it. This purchase has been completely worth it and I would recommended to anyone in the need of new ideas or some map making tool.

Having used my laptop at the table for a long time I was interested in seeing what this produce could do for me. I am glad I did. It is basically a data base thus allowing you to coordinate all the games data you have on the laptop. Could you do it with out it ? Yes, does it make it easer? definitely.

The learning curve is not to steep. I am using savage worlds so I set up a section for the basic savage would rules and another for our current campaign war of the dead. It should be easy to add other section for each new campaign.

Now it can take some time to set up you basic system section due to the amount of data etc but it worth it. tables that are spread throughout the book can all be together were they needed either though using print screen and paint to cut and paste then directly into the section or by using the keeps hyper link function that lets you view a PDF directly inside The Keep AND will take you right to the correct page you need to go to.

I bought the Keep on a Monday and was using it in our regular game on Saturday. Every thing went smoothly. All in all I am very happy that I bought this product and recommend it to any GM that uses a Lap top at the gaming table.

The Keep is a very useful tool. the fact that you can have everything in the same place while running a session, and that it integrates with other NBOS products such as Fractal Mapper, Screenmonkey, Inspiration Pad and Character sheet designer makes it worthwhile to get the whole set. viewing PDF's within the application makes it a breeze to look up rules, and you can also have links off to Internet resources as well. Where this tool shines is the creation of a concise adventure world, and then the running the adventures. One caveat - export the database regularly. I lost two hours work because I accidentally deleted and item through my own stupid fault. it also runs perfect on Vista 64.

I went looking for a piece of software to map 3d fictitious starmaps and wasn't sure I'd find anything, it's one of those things that only roleplayers are really going to use. I was really excited when I came across this program, not only did it seem to do exactly what I was looking for, but I kept finding extra bonus features in it that pushed it way past my expectations.

Firstly, it can handle maps of unbelievable size and complexity. I've generated ones with nearly 20,000 stars, trade routes between them and full systems around each star with asteroid belts, planets, binary planets or stars, moons, space stations and probably more. It does slow the animation down a bit at this high a setting (at least on my computer) but still seems to work fine. That's way more than I could ever need for a space game.

Secondly, it has free plugins available to make it automatically correspond to GURPS: Space 4th edition, which is the game system I use. (I think I also saw a traveller plugin for it as well).

Thirdly, you can either randomly generate your map (that 20,000 stars map took approximately a minute to create) or deliberate place each system on the map. In fact you can even do both, randomly generating a galaxy as background and then deliberately placing the stars you want.

And finally there's all kinds of options for the GM to use this program for record keeping. You can place ships on the map, put GM Notes on planets and all kinds of things.

The more I play with this software, the more I find that it can do. It takes a little while to get used to the interface, but that's not surprising as there are so many options.

I just spent 30 minutes writing a review for The Keep and my RPG Now Login timed out. If you write a review, write it first in a word processor then past it in. How about a Warning pop up with an "I'm Still here" button.

Anyway....

I like the keep. I was using a Journal program that uses a tree structure. However, it did NOT have gaming features. The Keep does. I use a laptop to GM. I prepare my game on it and use it for note taking, sounds, and images. The Keep gives me features that no Journal program has. If you use a PC at the game table, get The Keep.

• Dice rolled is good for quiet rolls (no sound effects are included). I will use it more now that I am becoming fond of it.
• The GM Screen is cool for showing images (maps etc…) on an external monitor.
• The ability to view PDFs inside The Keep is fantastic. Yes, you have to have Adobe Reader and its free. I have the PDF versions of many of my game books. I don’t have to alt-tab not to read them. COOL!
• Inspiration Pad is very useful and FREE. You will use this more than you think. Get it and install it into The Keep

What I didn’t like…
• I don’t like that you can’t change the icons. This is BAD. When your nodes get to be many they all start to blend and it’s gets confusing. You HAVE to make a way to add and/or change icons. I am surprised that you can’t now.

What I would like to see…
• A sound effect panel like the dice and the search. Just attack a sound (mp3 and/or wave) and name a button for it. Press the button and --- The sound of a fire ball (or whatever you want). User supplies the fireball of course.

The Keep is a good piece of gaming software and I hope that NBOS will support it by adding new features and fixing any bugs that may arise.